Let me preface this by saying that I consider myself a pretty well read individual. Since everyone on this board and on some other chans' lit boards seems to cream themselves over Murakami, I decided to pick up Wind-up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. I read Wind-up Bird first, and I just finished Kafka tonight, and I have realized that I am fucking lost.
Sure, I get the general plot, but some of this shit was so surreal and entrenched in metaphor or some other crazy bullshit that it went completely over my head. For example, the passage in Wind-up bird when the kid observes the two men burying the heart seemed to have utterly no connection to the rest of the narrative. What the fuck am I missing?
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Anonymous2010-01-08 0:58
You make it seem like this is your first experience reading surreal novels. Surely not? Anyway, the point of those books is to be pretty crazy. The characters themselves are a bit crazy. I mean, I haven't read Wind Up Bird Chronicle yet, but I bet its just as strange as Kafka.
So, if you can't handle Murakami's 'entrenched in metaphor' stuff, he does have more realistic books, like Norwegian Wood. But that book if definitely not as fun to read.
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Anonymous2010-01-08 1:00
....
*is definitely
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Anonymous2010-01-10 11:19
Yeah, but surely his books aren't surreal just to freak you the fuck out. There has to be some shred of meaning and significance of these surreal scenes in the overall novel. There is obviously some strategy or way of thinking that is conducive to understanding Murakami and I'm just not getting it.
Seriously, if you can't take a book for face value and you have to look for some deeper meaning because you didn't initially understand...
Like I said, I hope you're trolling, ugh.
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Anonymous2010-01-10 13:34
I read Kafka on the Shore and understood it after a week of thinking. Wind-Up Chronicle I still don't get after a year, but I accepted that as partially part of the book's meaning. Maybe it's not meant to be understood but you show you why you can't understand it.
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Anonymous2010-01-21 5:17
Too much Murakami gets repetitive. A Wild Sheep Chase doesn't get enough love though.
Granted, I haven't read Wind Up Bird in over a year, but when I read it I assumed that the boy that sees the men burying the heart is Cinnamon as a child or something like that, because it mentioned that he was very smart but never spoke again after that night, if I'm remembering that part correctly.
At any rate, I would gladly re-read both Wind Up Bird and Kafka. I loves me some surrealism.
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Anonymous2010-01-24 2:02
ITT: /book/ getting trolled by bots
lrn2internets (and lrn2literature, faggots)
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Anonymous2010-01-24 11:39
Murakami's books all sound the same after a while. That is, he creates the same mood in each one.